Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid in Aussie Open doubles final

Alfie Hewett in action on the way to the doubles final in Melboune. Picture: Tennis Foundation

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Norfolk’s Alfie Hewett and partner Gordon Reid reached their fifth Grand Slam men’s doubles final together on Thursday at the Australian Open when the reigning Wimbledon and US Open champions beat Gustavo Fernandez of Argentina and Shingo Kunieda of Japan 6-1, 4-6, (10-6).

Top seeds Hewett and Reid will face French second seeds Stephane Houdet and Nicolas Peifer in Friday’s final at Melbourne Park.

Hewett and Reid put the disappointment of bowing out of the men’s singles on Wednesday’s first day of wheelchair tennis competition firmly behind them as they reeled off six games in a row to take the first set. Although they were unable to wrap up the second set from 3-0 up, they were never behind in the deciding match tie-break and completed victory after an hour and 23 minutes.

“We said no matter what happened we wanted to go out there and enjoy ourselves and work as a team. To come out after yesterday and play some of the tennis we did in that first set and a half was just incredible and I thoroughly enjoyed it out there today,” said Hewett, who partnered Fernandez in last year’s Australian Open final, when Reid and Belgium’s Joachim Gerard came out on top.

Should Hewett – from Cantley – and Reid win the trophy on Friday it would seal a first British Grand Slam title of the year. That would continue a run of unprecedented success for players on the Tennis Foundation’s Wheelchair Tennis World Class Performance Programme that saw Great Britain win seven Grand Slam titles in 2017 after a record medal haul at the 2016 Rio Paralympics.